A Democratic socialist is running for NYC mayor. I hope he can rally voters. | Opinion
There are some ways that Zohran Mamdani is running his campaign more effectively than Kamala Harris did in 2024.
If you’re a certain kind of New Yorker – young, college-educated, and very online – there’s one mayoral candidate who stands out in a crowded primary election.
State assemblyman Zohran Mamdani, 33, has completely taken over my corner of the internet. I regularly see friends, acquaintances, influencers, and celebrities share videos and posts from him on TikTok, Instagram, and X.
There is part of me that is excited by the traction Mamdani’s getting. A Democratic socialist is polling second in the New York City mayor’s race, something that would be unheard of in the rest of the United States. His policy proposals excite me – I fully see how these plans could improve the lives of working-class New Yorkers, particularly his plans to make the city’s buses free and freeze rent for stabilized units. I worry that this message isn’t reaching the voters who could benefit from it the most.
If I took anything away from Kamala Harris’ 2024 presidential campaign, it’s that online clout doesn’t equate to votes. The support Mamdani has received from niche internet microcelebrities can only go so far. Ahead of the June primary, it may be best for him to prioritize other methods of campaigning.
Zohran Mamdani's uphill battle against Andrew Cuomo
Mamdani is still polling well below former governor Andrew Cuomo. A Marist University poll found Mamdani at 22% for the first round of ranked-choice voting. Despite having resigned over sexual harassment allegations, the possibility that he covered up nursing home deaths during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, only having recently moved to the city and generally being unpopular, Cuomo is polling at 44% in the first round.
Financially, Cuomo is also faring better. He has raised the most money of any candidate, although Mamdani is a close second. A New York Times analysis found that Mamdani also has the most individual donors of any candidate in the race, with an average $78 gift per donor. By comparison, the average donation to Cuomo is the highest of any candidate at $559. Cuomo also has a lower percentage of donors from within the city.
There is no part of me that wants to vote for Cuomo in the November election. Current mayor Eric Adams is problematic in his own ways, namely due to the corruption investigation against him that appears to have been dropped because of his cozying up to President Donald Trump. I’m ideologically at odds with the Republican Party. Yet I’m worried that funding and polling are telling us exactly how the June 24 primary will go.
A Democratic campaign that's different from what Kamala Harris ran
There are some ways that Mamdani is running his campaign more effectively than Harris did in 2024. There is a marked difference in the way he posts: instead of focusing on fan edits or tying himself to a pop album, his posts seem to be more rooted in his platform, record and his beliefs.
In one TikTok show, he took a taxi to the Bronx for Iftar and spoke about his activism with the New York Taxi Workers Alliance in 2021. In another, he was quizzed on his LGBTQ+ knowledge and talked about his support for the trans community. He appeared on leftist commentator Hasan Piker’s Twitch stream to eat donuts and talk through a range of topics like housing and criminal justice reform.
This approach to posting seems like it would be far more effective than what Harris attempted in 2024. However, like the 2024 Harris campaign, there’s a very real possibility that favoring young voters, who consistently turn out at lower rates, will backfire. I also wonder if he’s doing enough to court Black and Latino voters, who handed Adams a primary victory in 2021 and favored Cuomo in the Marist poll.
Another group that Mamdani will likely struggle with is Jewish voters, who made up 26% of the voters in the 2021 mayoral Democratic primary. Mamdani has been a vocal supporter of the Palestinian people and the pro-Palestine movement. He was recently called out for his previous failure to vote on two separate resolutions while in the General Assembly: one recognizing Israel's right to exist, and another condemning the Holocaust. His campaign told Politico that he hasn't put his name on any resolutions this session, although he also failed to support a similar Holocaust remembrance resolution in 2024.
According to the New Yorker magazine, Mamdani has the largest field program ever for a mayoral race with 22,000 volunteers. I hope that those posting about Mamdani are also making the effort to phone bank or canvass for him, spreading their message beyond the echo chambers we all exist in.
New Yorkers who are tired of the likes of Cuomo and Adams but want progress need Mamdani's campaign message to resonate.
Follow Paste BN columnist Sara Pequeño on X, formerly Twitter, @sara__pequeno